A blog expanding on the subjects discussed in our movie "Science Sex and the Ladies." We blog critically on a specific intersection of science, sexuality, and feminism; particularly paying attention to how female sexual response is discussed, portrayed, and studied in our culture. So...if you're interested in science, sex, lady stuff, or indie movie making...this is the blog for you.

5.05.2013

International Clitoris Awareness Week Gets 7 days of SSL Posts!

You best get ready for the most feel-good week of the year - International Clitoris Awareness Week! It starts tomorrow - May 6th thru the 12th! To celebrate and show my appreciation for the fact that this week exists, I'm going to do a clit-related post every day this week. I do have a full time job that's smack dab in a busy season, and there are 2 birthdays in my family this week, but I'm gonna do this - because I think it's important. But let me just muse on this event for a sec...

I like the idea of an awareness week. I don't think it's like a huge everyone-and-her-mama-knows-about-it thing, but it was featured in the Huffington post, and I saw a few Facebook posts about it from people in my feed who weren't necessarily sex or feminist advocates, so I think it picked up a little notoriety. Clitoraid created this event. They are a humanitarian organization dedicated to surgically repairing clitorises for female genital mutilation [FGM] victims. However, they created this first annual International Clitoris Awareness Week to focus on the positive. Nadine Gary, the Clitoraid spokes person says:

It’s been ignored, vilified, made taboo, and considered sinful and
shameful for centuries because of patriarchal religious values,” Gary
said. “It’s time to give this beautiful organ the attention it deserves.
It’s the only human organ with an exclusive sexual pleasure function!

Agreed. I'm all for anything that gives the clit more spotlight. I know it's not an invisible word, but it's also not part of our verbal culture the way it should be. It's rarely a part of our sexual education in schools. It's not the dominate word we ladies use to discuss our genitals - even though it's the part that gives us our pleasure. It is way under-used in porn, and sadly, in women's magazines that give sex advice, where the focus is all too often vaginal penetration. The clit is the organ of female sexual pleasure just as the penis is the organ of male sexual pleasure, but little girls probably don't learn the word until they are already headed into puberty if not much later. When we do learn it, it's probably not because our parents or other trusted adults identify the clit as a part of our body the way penises are identified for tiny boys, but more likely it's because we snuck a peak of the word in a book or magazine, and if we're lucky, as a passing label on a picture in sex ed. It's a word most of us don't hear our parents and teachers say.

More clit in our culture is good for the Orgasm Equality Movement, and so I thank Clitoraid, and I appreciate the challenge for activism they put out on their site:

For International Clitoris Awareness Week, Clitoraid is inviting women to organize special events.

“Whether through educational lectures, art exhibits, songs and dance,
or a ‘girl’s night’ of sharing, each woman can celebrate sexual beauty
the way she chooses,” Gary said. “Sexual expression brings self-esteem
and inner balance, so let's revere the clitoris in all its glory while
completely free of shame and guilt!”

Challenge accepted. I'm going to use my blog, but I hope some other readers will accept the challenge in their own way. Go Team Clit!